[Destro]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude!!

[unspun]

So this is the "Christian Science" Monitor criticizing a movie about mind over environment....

(whew)

Compassionate FReepers:
PLEASE HELP US FIND MERCHANT SEAMAN

[LibKill]

HarryPotterHarryPotterHarryPotterHarryPotterHarryPotter!

And all this sound and fury has about as much meaning as that surrounding the Harry Potter films.

[DoctorMichael]

"There is no spoon".

[narses]

Ping.

[ladyinred]

It is a pretty sad group that derives it's idea of religion from a fiction movie. From reading the article, I would say this is anything but Christianity.

[Tribune7]

I liked the Matrix. I saw it and understood quite clearly its inner meaning and the profound message it was trying to convey.

Bascially, what would best describe this effort is that it is a "science fiction" movie.

Now if I really wanted to blow your mind I would have told you, you were going to read this.

[Antoninus]

"The Matrix" is what passes for intellectual discourse among the brainless Hollywood elite and their vapid followers. It's a good action movie, but I spent more time laughing at how cheesy their attempts at intellectual depth were than anything else.

Post-modernism is dead, dude.

[Helms]

I think that The Matrix is one of the most interesting films
that Sewar Hollywood has ever produced and hits on some primordial level the ever present "man's need for metaphysics"(Schopenhauer)

[MSSC6644]

Didn't know if you'd seen this. Thought you'd like it.

[xkaydet65]

Two years ago our parish ran a retreat for the candidates for Confirmation. As I was a religious ed teacher and my daughter a candidate we participated inthe planning. The fellow hired to run the retreat was a locally well known and well connected Catholic layman. His brother is principal of the most prestigious boys Catholic HS on Long Island. He gave a great introductory pre retreat presentation and told the kids he would build the actual retreat around The Matrix. He briefly synopsied the plot and characters a, of course they all knew, but he then began to highlight the Gospel references he said were contained in the film. He was persuasive, though I wonder if a Christ character would persuade with 9mm Glocks and if the Holy Spirit were really an instructor in combat and survival techniques. Still if you want to look you can find evidence that Christ and his message of salvation lies beneath the surface of the film. At least one well respected Catholic evangelist to youth believes it does.

[nmh]

"There's two ways to look at this from a Christian perspective," says Glenn Yeffeth, editor of the book "Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix." "One is that it's retelling the story of Christ," he says. "The other way to look at it is a very violent film filled with garden-variety blasphemy that exploits people's resonance with the Christian narrative to fool people into a story that is fundamentally atheistic."

No there is only ONE way to look at this from a Christian perspective. The Matrix is not the retelling of Jesus Christ. It is nothing more than blasphemy with an exciting twist financed by atheists.

"Both sides see a movie phenomenon that, for better or worse, is shaping public thought about religion."

I'm not surprised the public is embracing this. The majority of people, including clergy know nothing about the Bible. Instead they rewrite His words to suit their agendas and desires.

""The Matrix" is compelling people to examine the plurality of religions versus the unity of truth, says cultural critic Read Mercer Schuchardt. "

There is NO plurality of "truth". Something is either true or false. Plurality alludes to versions of "truth" being equal that are not identical. This is illogical and false. Opposing, twisted and incomplete doctrine are not representative of "truth".

If people are looking for shallow sci-fi entertainment, this is the movie to see. If they are looking for truth and developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then the Bible is the ONLY source to look to.

For those looking to this as a spiritual "Christian" adventure, deed this:

2Tim.4:3

[3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Flame away!

[aruanan]

Trinity: Her kiss restores Neo from death. The doctrine of the three modes of God is central to Christian orthodoxy, yet the word "trinity" never actually appears in the Bible. Neo deepens the mystery of who Trinity is when he says to her, "I just thought, um...you were a guy."

Three modes. Central to Christian orthodoxy. Ha ha ha. The writer needs to go back to school. The idea that the three persons of the trinity are "modes" is heterodoxy, not orthodoxy.

[Prodigal Son]

Bump.

I guess I've got too much time on my hands. ;-)

Can't wait to see the next one. Opens in my part of the world on the 21st of this month.

[L.N. Smithee]

Music: The final song, played by Rage Against The Machine, is "Wake Up."

The guys in Rage Against The Machine are socialists. Excellent musicians, however.

I wouldn't think RATM would have agreed to do a song for The Matrix if they thought it was some veiled pseudo-Christian parable. But, on the other hand, they did record a song for that horrendous 1998 remake of Godzilla in which they dissed Steven Spielberg, American foreign policy AND the movie itself ("Godzilla [is] pure mutha*****' filler/To keep ya eyes off the real killer").

[proust]

Matrix Reloaded Compares Bush to Hitler!?